1 zimbabwe election support network [zesn] - Nehanda Radio

elections could have seriously compromised the secrecy of the ballot box as their neutrality
was highly questionable.
Its independence, neutrality and ability to work without being influenced by political parties is
highly suspect. It is vital for an election commission to be impartial and to instill the confidence
of the electorate, political parties and civic society. ZEC obviously needs calls an urgent
institutional surgery and complete overhaul.
ZESN therefore recommends that an independent and more professional Election
Management Body be established to run elections. The body must be politically independent,
efficient and dedicated to ensuring that elections are held in accordance with the law. The
importance of the impartiality, all-inclusiveness, competence and accountability of the Body is
emphasized. The method of appointment of Commissioners should be changed to reassure
political parties and the electorate that Commissioners will be impartial. The Body should be
appointed with the participation of opposition parties and key stakeholders. The selection
process of commissioners should be transparent and engender confidence in all stakeholders.
These selection processes should also ensure that gender, special needs groups and youth
participation or representation is achieved.
Adequate and qualified personnel should also staff the Body. It is necessary to ensure the
independence of the Body including financial autonomy. Commissioners could each be given
areas of responsibility to enhance accountability. The law could require the commissioners to
divide among themselves responsibility for the Commission’s different activities so that each
commissioner would be responsible for a particular activity and in this way promote equal
participation by all Commissioners. An alternative way of distributing functions between
Commissioners would be to give each Commissioner the responsibility for a particular
province.
Electoral Operations
Voter Registration and Inspection of the Voters’ Roll
While a number of changes were made for instance, that voters should simply produce “any
satisfactory documentary evidence reasonably proving where they live” was a restrictive
requirement, the voter registration exercise was hampered by a number of logistical problems,
namely that the exercise started late, that some inspection centers lacked adequate stationery,
that in some cases, insufficient and incorrect information was provided to citizens about the
registration process, that little time was allocated for the inspection of the voters roll, that in
some cases, upon registration, some potential voters were not provided with registration slips
[green passes], and that in some cases conflicting information was provided on documents
required to enable one to register as a voter. To improve voter registration and inspection in
future elections, it is recommend that:
• Voter registration should be approached as an ongoing process.
• Stringent requirements which discourage and disable people from
registering as voters should be done away with.
• The voter registration exercise should be sufficiently publicized to ensure
that every citizen who desires to participate in elections is able to do so.
• Adequate resources [time, human and financial] should be allocated
towards the voter registration exercise to enable ZEC undertake its voter
registration mandates.
63